Memoranda

87% of the UK’s top retailers risk revenue losses through poor mobile site performance

Almost nine in 10 (87%) of the UK’s top retailers are risking a significant drop in online visibility by neglecting their mobile site performance, according to new research. The report found that ‘worryingly low’ numbers of retailers have taken strides to improve mobile site speed since Google’s ‘Speed Update’ was announced in January. Google’s new update is rating sites that load in under four seconds as “excellent”, and research shows that 50% of users will expect a site to load in less than two seconds; an indication of consumer expectations now and in future.

However, the report highlighted that the average speed for the UK’s top 245 retailers currently sits at 11 seconds, thus falling into the “poor” category and potentially resulting in a 27% loss in customers.

Only 1% of retailers analysed fell into the “excellent” category – compared to 2% when similar research was completed in November 2017 – suggesting that the issue is slowly worsening over time. It is estimated that, for every additional second it takes a mobile page to load, conversions can drop by up to 20%.

Propaganda’s Digital Director James Winfield said, “The shift towards mobile has been building for some years now, indeed for most of our e-commerce clients we now see over 70% of their traffic coming from mobile devices. With that in mind, for some time now we have been designing for mobile first and then desktop and tablet second, neglecting this, as the report says would be nonsensical.”

Twitter and Facebook announce new advert transparency measures

On June 28, Facebook and Twitter both launched their transparency tools for advertising that will make all ads run on the platforms visible. These tools operate independently, meaning less risk of foreign meddling in political elections and far more access to information for consumers and for advertisers.

Every Facebook Page carries a new button called “Info and Ads.” That new section will display the ads the Page is currently running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook’s partner network. Facebook also will have a button to report each ad. Facebook also will publicly share more information about Pages. Pages will display changes to their names along with the date they were created.

Now, marketers can easily check out what their competitors are doing. For now, you’d have to go post by post however Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, said that will change in the future.

Anyone can view ads on Twitter by searching for a specific handle. That search will bring up the ad creative for all campaigns that handle has run in the last seven days.

Could the boom of Millennial-orientated consumer brands be on the decline?

Recent research from WGSN and ConsumerCat has shown that those aged 18-29 year old’s financial priorities have changed, especially those in rented accommodation.

Earlier this year it was reported that only one in three millennials ever will ever own their home, meaning two thirds of the millennial generation face ever-increasing home rental costs. They are feeling the strain which is likely to explain the decrease of spending on products such as smartphones, computers, clothing and footwear between 2012-17.

That said, the use of disposable income of leisure activities is also changing, the under-30’s are more likely to cut back on activities such as music festivals and gigs, or simply going out for a drink, instead they are saving their cash for holidays abroad, with a reported 126% rise on the spend of overseas accommodation. With this is in mind, it’s crucial that that brands and retailers recognise the millennial spending activity and consider it as part of their pricing and promotional strategy, especially if millennials will be more loyal to those who allow them to save money.

Pinspiration

One of our favourite Instagram accounts at the moment is photographer and designer Matthew Henry: @Oakanddink

It has a simple theme of using photography to work its way through the Pantone colour library, giving a lovely feed that gradiates colour whilst remaining interesting.

What a great way to generate a huge amount of content.